Secret Power of Social Networking Sites
Oct 13th, 2008 by markbullock
I only recently put myself up on
LinkedIn,
Facebook,
and MySpace. This was after years of not really getting what the value was, and
my concerns over the “professionalism” of my being on such sites. But, I bit the
bullet and set-up my profile on each, and started wondering - now what?
I figured out that it was probably a good idea to scour my address book for the people in my own network that were already on one or more of these sites (some I had not been in touch with for years). I found a few dozen, and decided to invite them to “join” my network. About half of those I invited joined – ok, not sure what happened with the other half, but now what to do with those I was connected to? How could I leverage this medium, what could I contribute that would be of value?
Then it dawned on me, how about making “recommendations” and/or “endorsing” the people I knew. It would be a simple gesture, acknowledging who each of these people were for me. Many I had not directly done business with, but I could certainly speak about their character – what kind of person they were. So I took a Sunday afternoon and wrote about 25 recommendations and/or endorsements for those in my “network” on LinkedIn. I spoke from the heart, in plain language, again simply acknowledging these people for their individual contributions to me, or the community around them – what ever came to mind.
What happened next frankly stunned me. First off a handful of individuals immediately recommended or endorsed me back – thanks guys! But what was more important was the emails & calls I got thanking me for my endorsement, and wanting to know how I was, what was up to, and when could we meet for coffee – lunch whatever. Now as I said, some of these folks I hadn’t interacted with in a few years, and honestly most were not aware of my career shift towards marketing.
In short the combination of relationship “re-connects”, “cross-connects”, direct business, and referred business that I received thought this simple act of endorsing others, was totally disproportionate to the relatively small effort I initially made. You see I had stumbled on a powerful secret – I made it about them, not about me. The moral of the story: Join an online social network, be authentic & generous, connect & endorse others. Business is conducted personally between people, people are personally connected to each other – get personally connected – conduct more business, personally!
Here's a cool video on Social Networking
Mark Bullock
Partner / Practice Marketing Advisor
Mark, hi! Another great post - thanks for sharing. What an interesting “experiment.” Actually, you did make more than just a “small effort.” You took a Sunday afternoon to write 25 endorsements. That’s more time than many people are willing to take to see this remarkable secret in action. I, like you, have felt the same way about LinkedIn and the like, but as I blog on, I’m beginning to see more value in these type of sites. I much more prefer the blogging world … I feel it’s a little more informative, but not as personal as the social networking sites where you are actually aligning yourself with people you personally know (whereas you and I, for instance, have never met). Still, it takes time to sit at a computer and string together these words - and in centuries past, people conducting meaningful connections via the simple act of letter writing. Let us not forget the power of the written word. It is even more powerful when coupled with human contact, the “personal” factor. A lunch date. A breakfast meeting. Dropping by the office to say “hi.”
Maybe I’ll write a few endorsements this Sunday … you’ve got me thinking!
Great point you make here. I would also add, it is very easy to create a company site on facebook. You can then invite your friends to become “fans” of your site. Your company facebook site will then be listed on these friends’ profiles. You can see my company’s facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Targetlaw/44604235237?ref=ts